Star Trek: Into Darkness

J.S.F. · May 21, 2013

Liked it.

Will buy.

Would waifu.

(Oh, sorry, that was from another thread with Kuwi. My bad.

)

Yeah, Zoombie, bad science...but it's STAR TREK! It was and remains the only show-turned-movie in which Scotty uses metaphors like I use tissues after I've had a bad cold.

Seraph · May 21, 2013

figaroooooooooooooo

Slicklines · May 21, 2013

dolores haze said:
I liked it okay. Found it more re-tread than re-boot, with too many action sequences that went on for far too long. The cast did a great job. I wouldn't have minded more of them and less money/time spent on stuff exploding.

Yep. One hundred percent true in my opinion.

kuwisdelu · May 21, 2013

J.S.F. said:
Liked it.

Will buy.

Would waifu.

(Oh, sorry, that was from another thread with Kuwi. My bad.)

Zoombie · May 21, 2013

Opty said:
Because the reboot is much more space opera and much less science fiction than the original series and movies. It was written by the same guys who wrote the Transformers movies. That fact alone demands that you lower your intellectual standards going in.

Unless something is being intentionally silly or has some reasons within universe for scientific inaccuracies (or, you know, both), I try to never lower my intellectual standards.

I mean, fuck, Galaxy Quest has better science than this...which is why it is still the third best Star Trek movie.

kuwisdelu · May 21, 2013

Zoombie said:
Unless something is being intentionally silly or has some reasons within universe for scientific inaccuracies (or, you know, both), I try to never lower my intellectual standards.

Eh, being a fan of science fiction pretty much universally means picking and choosing which scientific "inaccuracies" actually matter to you. There's always scientific inaccuracies.

I mean, fuck, Galaxy Quest has better science than this...which is why it is still the third best Star Trek movie.

Galaxy Quest had science? I love that movie, but I'll have to see just how bad it is in the new Star Trek myself, assuming I can ever actually get to a theater.

Myrealana · May 21, 2013

The floors are so clean...

Zoombie · May 21, 2013

kuwisdelu said:
Eh, being a fan of science fiction pretty much universally means picking and choosing which scientific "inaccuracies" actually matter to you. There's always scientific inaccuracies.

True, but Star Trek (in general) consistently crosses lines that they don't need to cross if they just thought about things for, like, five seconds.

EDIT: See, that's the thing that increasingly bugs me about Star Trek and Into Darkness...they have great actors, directing, awesome effects. They have an astounding score! They have everything right...EXCEPT FOR THE STORY. And Into the Darkness pisses me off because they only needed a LITTLE BIT more to be perfect!

I guess I'm just too damn picky...

CrastersBabies · May 21, 2013

I just don't give a shit about these types of holes/inaccuracies. Not one shit. I don't get why people do. I'm not meant to "get it." And so the world goes on.

And I am happy.

Zoombie · May 21, 2013

Well, because when it comes to science, the reality is infinitely cooler than the stupid stuff that are on the screen.

kuwisdelu · May 21, 2013

Zoombie said:
Well, because when it comes to science, the reality is infinitely cooler than the stupid stuff that are on the screen.

I'd have to disagree when it comes to gravity.

I consistently break gravity in my stories.

In fact, my metaphors use gravity more accurately.

Zoombie · May 21, 2013

kuwisdelu said:
I'd have to disagree when it comes to gravity.

I consistently break gravity in my stories.

In fact, my metaphors use gravity more accurately.

But you write magical realism.

...I'd totally watch a Star Trek magical realism mashup.

kuwisdelu · May 21, 2013

Zoombie said:
But you write magical realism.

...I'd totally watch a Star Trek magical realism mashup.

Considering how often I use sci-fi elements, I've decided to write a genre I'm calling speculative realism.

J.S.F. · May 21, 2013

Zoombie said:
Unless something is being intentionally silly or has some reasons within universe for scientific inaccuracies (or, you know, both), I try to never lower my intellectual standards.

I mean, fuck, Galaxy Quest has better science than this...which is why it is still the third best Star Trek movie.

ーーー
Did it? I loved Galaxy Quest, but some of the things happening there were a bit much to take from a geek's perspective i.e. mine. The mine-field was one of them, but the landing on Earth really got me. Damn deck separates from the main ship, does an afterburn--like, has Laredo gotten THAT good in ten minutes of practice time?--skids along the parking lot and CONVENIENTLY crashes into the Comic/S/F convention without harming a soul?

"Pedal to the metal, Captain."

Fuckin' A, Cap...

And while we're on the "WTF/WTH" kick, where is it written that--get ready for more caps--EVERY SINGLE MOVIE WITHIN MEMORY HAS SOME EXTRA SAYING "WTF" OR "WTH" IN AT LEAST ONE SCENE? What is up with that?

Okay, rant over.

Still loved GQ, though. One of my favorite flicks of all time.

Zoombie · May 21, 2013

Hey, at least it doesn't have that BIZARRE idea that you can just pick up and play with a transporter. This was worst in Enterprise, where they had this highly experimental piece of technology...so you'd think they'd give it to the person with specialized training.

And yet, no, every freaking episode, they let Reed or Hoshi use the damn thing to beam people up.

Actually, now that I mention it, Starfleet has to be the worst run fleet in the history of the universe. Their chain of command is confused, their ship disposition is just plain confused, and their high ranking officers have NO concept of delegation or how to give orders to their underofficers.

But yeah, I was a bit silly with my Galaxy Quest line.

J.S.F. · May 21, 2013

Zoombie said:
Hey, at least it doesn't have that BIZARRE idea that you can just pick up and play with a transporter. This was worst in Enterprise, where they had this highly experimental piece of technology...so you'd think they'd give it to the person with specialized training.

And yet, no, every freaking episode, they let Reed or Hoshi use the damn thing to beam people up.

Actually, now that I mention it, Starfleet has to be the worst run fleet in the history of the universe. Their chain of command is confused, their ship disposition is just plain confused, and their high ranking officers have NO concept of delegation or how to give orders to their underofficers.

But yeah, I was a bit silly with my Galaxy Quest line.

---

I'm gonna assume (not the best word to use, but hey, it's fantasy time) that the transporter personnel are trained in how to use it. Shit, at least in TOS of Star Trek, they had Scotty handling it most of the time. Spock is so damn smart he's logical enough not to screw up, and who will ever forget Lt. Kyle getting Kirk in when the Doomsday Machine blew up real good? Kyle's finest hour, bar none.

Starfleet Command was--and I'll agree with you--disorganized. They just should have had it like in the old series where they had a tele-link and got the orders from Admiral Whoever or had a communique saying the Enterprise had to do such and such.

Most SF is suspension of disbelief, anyway, but yeah, it should be grounded with at least some rules. Let's hope they get it straight for the next installment.

Zoombie · May 22, 2013

Well, I think the problem is that they never seem to be able to decide if Starfleet is a military or civilian organization.

What they should do is have like, two organizations: Starfleet and...I don't know, Exploration Fleet.

With the Starfleet being the actual military defense organization. Because, I think once you realize that there are freaking space orcs wandering around with disruptors, being a nice to everyone you meet isn't going to work all the time.

kuwisdelu · May 24, 2013

Okay now that I've actually seen it...

Zoombie said:
Basically, the Enterprise is in orbit about 10,000-20,000 clicks past the Moon. For those who don't know, this is officially FUCKING FAR in terms of Earth space (not so far in terms of intrasolar space, but whatever). Then the Enterprise's engines fail... AND THE ENTERPRISE DROPS LIKE A ROCK, STRAIGHT TOWARDS THE EARTH. Then it hits the atmosphere.

In five minutes. Now, you might say that, using the impulse drives of Star Trek's technology, one can go from the Moon to the Earth in under five minutes. Fine. But the ship is NOT under its own power. It is POWERLESS. And yet, it falls across 400,000+ kilometers between where it was and the Earth in five minutes.

Do they actually say they're in a stable orbit? If they did, I don't remember that. The ships are stationary relative to each other, but they could still be moving toward Earth pretty quickly. I only remember a scarce few shots that established their distance relative to the moon. It felt like quite longer than five minutes was meant to have passed. But I dunno.

And it TUMBLES while it does so. And as it tumbles, the gravity inside the ship SHIFTS with the tumbling, as if this was fucking Inception's corridor scene.

NO. BAD. BAD MOVIE, WRONG! *sprays movie in the face with a water bottle*

One of the characters does shout, "We've lost gravity!" or "stabilizers are offline", which could mean one of two things.
Either they've lost their artificial gravity, or they have lost the stabilization thrusters.

Now, if they lost artificial gravity, and they are in free fall (which they are, since they are falling), then they should be in MICROGRAVITY. If they've lost their stabilizers and are tumbling (which is what is shown), then gravity should be normal on the ship, because the ship can be at any orientation and gravity should still face down. Right?

If they've lost their stabilizers AND their a-grav, then maybe I could see the spinning of the ship causing artificial gravity through rotation...BUT IF THEY WERE SPINNING THAT FAST, THE ENTERPRISE WOULD FLY APART.

Isn't it possible the artificial gravity is just malfunctioning and while trying to re-align itself is just basically choosing "down" totally randomly?

Ehh, I'm a scientist. I deal with science too much day-to-day to give a fuck about it in movies.

nighttimer · May 25, 2013

Zoombie said:
True, but Star Trek (in general) consistently crosses lines that they don't need to cross if they just thought about things for, like, five seconds.

EDIT: See, that's the thing that increasingly bugs me about Star Trek and Into Darkness...they have great actors, directing, awesome effects. They have an astounding score! They have everything right...EXCEPT FOR THE STORY. And Into the Darkness pisses me off because they only needed a LITTLE BIT more to be perfect!

I guess I'm just too damn picky...

No, you're not. As a summer blockbuster full of sound and fury signifying nothing but a easy way to kill two hours in the dark, Star Trek: Into Darkness delivers the goods.

And as a summer blockbuster, I give it a "B+."

As a Star Trek movie, with the exception of the overkill of fan service it fails spectacularly. Utterly. Completely. This movie is all eye candy. It has no brain and it certainly has no heart.

J.J. Abrams made some terrible decisions as a director and the first was don't try to remake the strongest entity and most beloved entry in the Star Trek film canon. You're only going to draw comparisons you don't really want to make and fall short of them on nearly every score.

No spoilers here, but I literally slumped in my seat during the third act and thought to myself, "Are they really going to do this?" And then they did it and it was even worse than I feared it would be.

Into Darkness? Into Dumbness, is more like it.

kuwisdelu · May 25, 2013

nighttimer said:
J.J. Abrams made some terrible decisions as a director and the first was don't try to remake the strongest entity and most beloved entry in the Star Trek film canon. You're only going to draw comparisons you don't really want to make and fall short of them on nearly every score.

It struck me as being more like a good fan-fiction than a real new entry.

Zoombie · May 25, 2013

nighttimer said:
J.J. Abrams made some terrible decisions as a director and the first was don't try to remake the strongest entity and most beloved entry in the Star Trek film canon. You're only going to draw comparisons you don't really want to make and fall short of them on nearly every score.

See, the problem isn't that he remade Wrath of Khan the problem is he did so with no BALLS.

The thing that made the original work was because it had the ovaries to STICK to what it did. This movie immediately, IMMEDIATELY, got out a reset button.

Which isn't what I wanted to see, considering how much Voyager and Enterprise pissed me off with that kind of bullshittery.

nighttimer · May 26, 2013

J.J. Abrams has no balls.

Zoombie said:
See, the problem isn't that he remade Wrath of Khan the problem is he did so with no BALLS.

The thing that made the original work was because it had the ovaries to STICK to what it did. This movie immediately, IMMEDIATELY, got out a reset button.

Which isn't what I wanted to see, considering how much Voyager and Enterprise pissed me off with that kind of bullshittery.

Maybe this goes to show that Nicholas Meyer had much bigger balls than J.J. Abrams. Meyer gave us an ending that left audiences choked up over a beloved character's death. And he was really dead.

Abrams pulled the chicken switch with a clumsy, "Ha-ha. Fooled ya! I was dead but I got better" move. Talk about your totally lame deus ex machina stunts.

Indianasmith · May 26, 2013

All the above criticisms have some merit . . . . but I still liked it!!!

GeorgeK · May 26, 2013

kuwisdelu said:
Isn't it possible the artificial gravity is just malfunctioning and while trying to re-align itself is just basically choosing "down" totally randomly?
.

The corrupt Starfleet electricians switched out the multiphase couplings. They should have been 45 megawatts and they used 30's. With the skimmed profits they set up an off the books company that sold starship designs to both the Romulans and Klingons. It will be the plot of the third movie, "Into Blackwater"

Calla Lily · May 28, 2013

Okay. Saw it yesterday.

Good:
Benedict Cumberbatch. The man completely, totally delivered on all the hopes and promises. Awesomesauce.
[major huge honking spoilers]
--The hole-making machine for the prison wall. Loved it! Bugs Bunny in space FTW!
--They killed Pike! Waah! But good choice for the plot
--I'm not a SF geek. All the stuff zoombie's ranting about above slid right past me. I turned off my brain and enjoyed the tension.
--The Klingons. The writers didn't wimp out.

The bad, AKA, what annoyed the heck out of me, AKA very opinionated opinions:
--I didn't believe in hardly any of new Spock's emotional moments. Yet I believed them in the first movie. His puzzlement at Uhura's comments and some of Kirk's were much more believable than [begin more major huge honking spoilers]
--his KHAAAAAN! when Kirk died. I didn't believe it for one single moment. I believed his tears because he stole them from Pike (in essence), but the scream? It was just fandom of the original movie.
--The plot "twists" were telegraphed half an hour out. Puh-lease.
--The whole "OMG We're going to crash into Earth there's no gravity the doohickeys that power everything are out of sync OMG!" was, again, much too blatant a vehicle for Kirk to stop being a boy and become a man / "homage" to the original. Mr. Lily pointed out that since this crew is in an alternate timeline, it could make sense that they relive slightly altered versions of the original movies. I still rolled my eyes. A lot. Write a new story, fer cryin' out loud!
--It just sort of ended, whump. I really expected Khan to break out and take his crew with him. I was disappointed in that.

All that being said, it was a fun ride. I didn't get a sense of 2 hours passing till the very end when I was rolling my eyes at the sledgehammerness. 4 out of 5 starts, srsly.

Also? What is "waifu"?

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Red fish, blue fish...

Revolutionize the World

Dragon of the Multiverse

Revolutionize the World

I aim to misbehave

Dragon of the Multiverse

Burninator!

Dragon of the Multiverse

Revolutionize the World

Dragon of the Multiverse

Revolutionize the World

Red fish, blue fish...

Dragon of the Multiverse

Red fish, blue fish...

Dragon of the Multiverse

Revolutionize the World

Am I Evil? Yes, I Am!

Revolutionize the World

Dragon of the Multiverse

Am I Evil? Yes, I Am!

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